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Not everyone is using AI for everything

gabrielweinberg.com

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Re: Not everyone is using AI for everything

#111

Post by hdhdhsjsbdh »

hypfer wrote: post #82
acc_297 wrote: post #72

On the post-grad job hunt right now - I note that most employers will ask in a technical interview or whiteboard interview "how are you using LLMs?" It's tough to answer because you want to hedge for both an AI enthused employer and an AI hesitant employer with limited information about who they are and how they personally use these products. I've been responding with a sort of long winded answer about how 'there is…

> It's tough to answer because you want to hedge for both an AI enthused employer and an AI hesitant employer with limited information about who they are and how they personally use these products. Have you considered just answering truthfully? Would you even want to work somewhere where you need to play a role and where they flip out when you say the wrong word you should've correctly guessed through mind reading? T…

> Would you even want to work somewhere where you need to play a role and where they flip out when you say the wrong word you should've correctly guessed through mind reading?

This just sounds like a standard tech interview. Mind reading to find and perform the secret “signal”. Nobody flips out if you don’t find it, they just move on to one of the other 1,000 candidates for the role.

Re: Not everyone is using AI for everything

#112

Post by acc_297 »

emodendroket wrote: post #92
hypfer wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's tough to answer because you want to hedge for both an AI enthused employer and an AI hesitant employer with limited information about who they are and how they personally use these products. Have you considered just answering truthfully? Would you even want to work somewhere where you need to play a role and where they flip out when you say the wrong word you should've correctly guessed through mind reading? T…

I assume it's because he is seeking to pay rent, food bills, and other expenses through employment.

you assume correct

Re: Not everyone is using AI for everything

#113

Post by simonw »

z3c0 wrote: post #57
simonw wrote: post #11

Bit of an odd decision to build an entire article around a clickbait headline from July 2025. Talk about a strawman. That aside, this piece is interesting and ties together some useful numbers and studies. I hadn't seen the recent Microsoft paper showing: > 30 percent of the US working-age population is using AI [...] with at least 90 minutes of usage time in a given month. I'm honestly impressed at how high that num…

It's a retrospective analysis of an assertion made by NYTimes. The original headline wasn't clickbait, just presumptive, and even so, it's a pretty significant publication that spends a lot of time on the HN front page (alongside you, I'll add). I think it's perfectly fair, and nowhere close to a strawman, to deconstruct that claim a year later.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/16/magazine/using-ai-hard-fo...

"Everyone Is Using A.I. for Everything. Is That Bad?" - subheading: "Either way, let’s not be in denial about it."

It's clearly intended as rhetorical hyperbole - like "everyone's on their phone at the movie theater" or "everyone's fed up with AI hype".

If you read the actual transcript it makes it very clear that it's not claiming "Everyone is using AI" almost immediately:

> ChatGPT is the sixth-biggest website on Earth. Something like 43 percent of Americans in the work force use generative A.I.

Re: Not everyone is using AI for everything

#114

Post by satvikpendem »

enraged_camel wrote: post #89

I'm using AI for most things. It has been an incredible improvement to both my quality of life and my wallet. Some of the most high profile items from just the past three months: - I'm getting my roof replaced due to hail damage. Insurance originally covered only $5k due to depreciation. I fed the insurance policy to AI. I learned about the appraisal clause and invoked it. At the end, I got another $6,500 back. - I w…

Great examples. I think people not using AI for issues like these lack imagination or more charitably, simply don't know that it works so well for these. Especially non-technical people can find great value out of AI, not just SWEs.

Re: Not everyone is using AI for everything

#115

Post by jdw64 »

bigstrat2003 wrote: post #79
jdw64 wrote: post #28

I only use AI for software development. For writing, I don't use it at all except to translate source materials. So yes, AI is only for software development in my case. The real question is whether I have any value outside of software development. Sometimes I get the feeling that AI is replacing the value I have in society.

I don't think AI has any real value for software development, personally. The quality just isn't there, unless you invest so much effort that you may as well have written it yourself. But the market can stay irrational longer than you can stay solvent, and even though I think the industry will get over the idiocy of having LLMs write software, there's no telling how long that will take. So it's a scary time to work i…

I envy you. For me, AI is faster than the code I write myself in many, many cases. It might replace the average developer, but a talented developer like you probably won't be replaced

Re: Not everyone is using AI for everything

#116

Post by simonw »

JCTheDenthog wrote: post #23
simonw wrote: post #11

Bit of an odd decision to build an entire article around a clickbait headline from July 2025. Talk about a strawman. That aside, this piece is interesting and ties together some useful numbers and studies. I hadn't seen the recent Microsoft paper showing: > 30 percent of the US working-age population is using AI [...] with at least 90 minutes of usage time in a given month. I'm honestly impressed at how high that num…

How much of that use is driven by corporate mandates to use AI anywhere and everywhere (even when it's a terrible fit)?

I'd love to see credible numbers on that. I find it hard to believe that stupid corporate mandates are responsible for more than a small fraction of usage, but without data I have just my own instincts to go on there.

Re: Not everyone is using AI for everything

#118

Post by leptons »

bigstrat2003 wrote: post #79
jdw64 wrote: post #28

I only use AI for software development. For writing, I don't use it at all except to translate source materials. So yes, AI is only for software development in my case. The real question is whether I have any value outside of software development. Sometimes I get the feeling that AI is replacing the value I have in society.

I don't think AI has any real value for software development, personally. The quality just isn't there, unless you invest so much effort that you may as well have written it yourself. But the market can stay irrational longer than you can stay solvent, and even though I think the industry will get over the idiocy of having LLMs write software, there's no telling how long that will take. So it's a scary time to work i…

Where I work, the CTO drank a whole bunch of AI kool-aid recently, so now we're expected to "10x" our output with AI. I don't think he realizes this also means 10x more problems of all kinds. But I fully expect him to double-down and when AI costs skyrocket, he'd lay off more developers to pay for more AI.

I am constantly looking for a new job, but all of them are also require AI coding experience.

Re: Not everyone is using AI for everything

#119

Post by retired »

emodendroket wrote: post #92
hypfer wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's tough to answer because you want to hedge for both an AI enthused employer and an AI hesitant employer with limited information about who they are and how they personally use these products. Have you considered just answering truthfully? Would you even want to work somewhere where you need to play a role and where they flip out when you say the wrong word you should've correctly guessed through mind reading? T…

I assume it's because he is seeking to pay rent, food bills, and other expenses through employment.

I typically seek employment for the free electricity, coffee, internet, water, microwave usage and coverage from rain. Some employers even offer showers!

The best benefit about working in a large office is that nobody checks the basement.

Re: Not everyone is using AI for everything

#120

Post by JCTheDenthog »

simonw wrote: post #116
JCTheDenthog wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How much of that use is driven by corporate mandates to use AI anywhere and everywhere (even when it's a terrible fit)?

I'd love to see credible numbers on that. I find it hard to believe that stupid corporate mandates are responsible for more than a small fraction of usage, but without data I have just my own instincts to go on there.

At my employer (megacorp with tens of thousands of employees) daily use is mandated. Our annual bonuses and pay raises for our performance reviews were explicitly tied to this.
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